Political Psych Meta
I'm feeling so damn frustrated right now. It's pretty clear that the believers in the Rapture have taken over the Republican party ... since they must believe they'll not be affected by what they are...
View ArticleDepression
What should have been a happier time for me, just wasn't to be. For those of you with depressive illness, you'll likely understand. Depression is insidious. I was steadily descending into the dark last...
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December 2015 breaks records for warmth
The top graphic tells most of the story. Pretty much everywhere you see the brown shading it was the warmest December in the historical record. In some cases, it would have been in the top 10 warmest...
View ArticleIs this Trump Voter Reachable?
I found this on Facebook and was completely flummoxed by it. This is written in an intelligent, seemingly thoughtful manner by a friend of a relative whom I will not name. It has the sound of a...
View ArticleA Reminder from a Previous Diary: Democrat is not an adjective!
My intention was to write a new diary explaining why using the noun “Democrat” as a adjective, as in Democrat Party, instead of DemocratIC, is considered a pejorative. When I did a search for...
View ArticleNazi Quote of the Day: My little bit of activism
I have felt terrified to varying degrees since the election on November 8. The trauma is partly the result of growing up gay in the late 60s and early 70s, and a PTSD type reaction to the ascendancy of...
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ENOUGH!!!!!!
xYouTube VideoSo, this is the kind of game some folks here want to continue to play in some of the diary comments?I for one have had more than enough of it. This is an emergency!We are dealing with an...
View ArticleDCCC now hanging up on people?
Short diary, but something happened today that I found interesting.I picked up an unidentified phone call this afternoon while working from home, against my better judgment (with a 202 area code). It...
View ArticleLosing Chase Felt As Hard to Me as Losing a Child
The lovely black cat you see in my hands is named Chase. He earned his name by being next to impossible to capture when we first brought him home from Last Chance Rescue in 2006. I loved that cat like...
View ArticleWhat if it doesn't happen? What will we do?
I’m sure if we all put our heads together we might even come up with one million reasons to impeach the mango menace. But as I keep on hearing, impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Are...
View ArticleAnother Active Shooter Situation
This time in Midland/Odessa, TX. Apparently there are 2 people in separate vehicles involved. “Multiple people” have been shot, per MSNBC. These men are currently driving on the streets of Midland,...
View ArticleThoughts on "A Republic, if you can keep it."
Did anyone notice the statement posed by Teacher Ken in his diary from awhile back?If what we are going to continue to see/experience is a refusal to address real issues of corruption, lying to the...
View ArticleCOVID-19 Daily Cases in Spain Have Suddenly Increased. Why?
According to CNN, on 13 April, Spain allowed about 300,000 non-essential workers to return to their jobs, mostly in construction and manufacturing industries. Restaurants, bars, and shops continued to...
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COVID-19 in Brazil, with a Preamble Rant
This won’t be a long diary. But I’ve been tracking the coronavirus caseloads since this whole thing started. I’ve gone through the fear of catching and dying from it, and especially passing the virus...
View ArticleA (REALLY) Short Diary re: White supremacist infiltration of Minneapolis...
I’m listening to the Minneapolis news conference now during Q&A. Governor Walz has just asked local authorities to count the number of people from out of state who have arrived to disrupt and...
View ArticleEx-DIA Official Says U.S. Autocracy Warning Lights Blinking Red
I just want to make sure that everyone is aware of this story. A former DIA analyst who was an expert on authoritarian governments was interviewed by Rachel Maddow tonight, and sees the warning lights...
View ArticleAsked to Wear a Mask, 39 y/o Man Breaks Jaw of Sesame Street-Themed Teen...
I’m sick and tired of bullies. Unfortunately, these days they seem to be legion, in the worst way possible. Another story from the newspapers, showing our worst impulses unleashed over “to mask or not...
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Fires in the U.S.
Stepping away from overt politics for a moment …. the header image is a portion of the Western U.S. view from by GOES-20 a couple of days ago. I’ve annotated it with phenomena of interest …. mostly the...
View ArticleVery very short diary entry ... but IMPORTANT
Apparently we may be in for much more mayhem than a dumpster fire, and it’s been pretty much completely ignored by the press (except NPR).xThe Trump administration in the past 2 days has abruptly...
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Worldwide Extreme Weather Resulting from Sudden Stratospheric Warming
I’ve not written a climate diary for quite some time, and since this hasn’t been blogged yet, I thought I’d give it a stab. The title graphic is the 2-meter (standard surface air) Temperature departure...
View ArticleMore COVIDiots On Video: Idaho
This isn’t going to be a long diary. But twitter had “Idaho” trending and I was curious why. When I went over to see, this graphic was the first thing I was greeted with. Note the small children being...
View ArticleSidney Powell Comes Clean in Court Statement on Dominion Lawsuit
Quick hit here: Apparently Sidney Powell of “Release the Kraken” fame, has testified to the following, under oath, at the initial hearing for the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit (tweet from Zoe...
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Climate Brief: 30 July 2021
Arctic Sea Ice: Some History Since 2011I had written a series of diaries in 2009-2011 on the state of Arctic Sea Ice. Those years were marked by lower than normal summer sea ice extent; all below the...
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Climate Brief: What's your carbon footprint?
IntroductionWe at Climate Brief write about the present and future impacts of global warming around the world; our diary entries often sound like dirges from a requiem for our planet. Often there is no...
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Climate Brief: Effect of Forest Fire Smoke on Weather and Climate
IntroductionThis diary is about how the current crop of U.S. forest fires are degrading the weather and public health, and then a further section on the potential impact on the global scale climate....
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ClimateBrief: Are There More Precipitation Extremes in a Warming Climate?
IntroductionThis summer has been one of extremes: heat, drought, flooding, fire, and other weather-related disasters. Above, the title graphic shows the precipitation from one of the most recent...
View ArticleIntersection: Me, Politics and the Climate Emergency (and Everything Else)
Politics and MeI’ve gone through an evolution with respect to the importance of politics, and where I want to volunteer. When I was a young man, I believed it should go to the gay struggle, because...
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Climate Brief: Can the Wine Industry Adapt to Global Warming?
The short answer to the question is “maybe”. The environments where wine grapes are grown are undergoing significant change as a result of anthropogenic global warming. Grape varieties suited to the...
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Climate Brief: Arctic Sea Ice Extent Evolution for 2021
Technical Points About Measurement of Sea Ice ExtentA few technical items on how sea ice extent is measured:Satellite observations of the poles have been available since September 1979.Microwave energy...
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Climate Brief: Forecasting Future Weather Extremes
IntroductionOne of the important aspects of global warming is its impact on weather extremes we are likely to experience in the future. We need to be able to investigate possible climate scenarios...
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Climate Brief: Greenhouse Gas Removal Part 1: Natural Processes
IntroductionRemoving and sequestering greenhouse gases to reduce their concentrations in the atmosphere has been studied over the last two decades as a way to mitigate global warming. Greenhouse gases...
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Climate Brief: How well have climate models predicted global warming?
IntroductionThe first scientist to address Congress about global warming was Dr. James Hansen in 1988, based on a paper he and colleague S. Lebedeff had published in 1987. In his testimony, he stated...
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Climate Brief: Using satellite data to verify country-by-country methane...
IntroductionReady for some really cool stuff that potentially will help with greenhouse gas mitigation?Using satellite sensors, we can map both carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) leaks from oil and...
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Climate Brief: What we do and do not know about the Meridional Overturning...
Introduction: What is the Meridional Overturning Circulation?The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) spans the globe and includes surface currents, deep ocean currents, and areas where deep water...
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Climate Brief: Using IPCC to quantify greenhouse gas emission reductions
Introduction: Goals of COP26 in contextCurrent Five-Year Emission Cutting Plans Are Not EnoughThe Paris agreement reached in 2015 committed countries to limiting global heating to “well below” the 2oC...
View ArticleGuess What? Three Judges Freeze Biden vaccine requirement
This won’t be a long diary, but it appears three judges of the 5th Circuit Court of the U.S, all appointed by Republicans, have decided that Pres. Biden’s vaccine requirement for private companies may...
View ArticleClimate Brief: Which temperature projection is it going to be?
Introduction: The five global warming scenariosWe’re now up to day 10 of the COP26, and now to the point of being tentatively able to project the long term results of what’s been promised by the...
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Climate Brief: Is it selling out to buy them out?
Addendum 1:I’ve corrected my natural gas numbers to reflect the proper units conversion from cubic feet to MMBtus.Also important, I’ve not taken into account that some, if not most, of the proven...
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Climate Brief: Arctic switch to more rain than snow now expected 10-20 years...
IntroductionAn Historical First: Rain at Greenland Summit StationSome of you may recall the report that on August 21, 2021, rain was observed at the highest point on the Greenland Ice Sheet, 3250 m...
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Climate Brief: More bad news from the Poles
Introduction: The Poles and Global WarmingThe Polish people have been participating for decades with other human beings, in a nefarious plot to breathe out too much CO2. This has resulted in an...
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Climate Brief: The Southwest US drought might now be the new normal
Note: I’ll be using California to represent Southwest drought for this blog entry.Introduction: The current state of the California droughtLet’s start with the graphic I’ve chosen for the banner above,...
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Climate Brief: Methane, wildfires, and drought, oh my!
Author’s note: As I write this entry, I stand united with the people of Ukraine. I'm also very concerned about this conflict becoming WWIII, all because a tyrant wants the world to bend their knees to...
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Climate Briefs: Vignettes from the Front Lines - Mississippi Delta
From 1922 to 2014: The vanishing wetlandsThe Mississippi Delta has been a story of disappearance. In 1922, you can see the 1922 coastline in the banner graphic to this entry outlined in grey. This was...
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Climate Brief: Vignettes from the front lines - the Arctic sea ice maximum
Introduction: A quick overview of the last 30 yearsIf you look back at my story record from say 2010 through 2012, you’ll find some diary entries from 2010 through 2012 titled “News From the Arctic:...
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Climate Brief: Vignettes from the front lines - Amazon rain forest
Editor’s Note: While climate is the focus of this diary, the impacts of deforestation and ecosystem destruction on the people of the forest and their livelihood are all important.Introduction:...
View ArticleClimate Brief: More on Permafrost
Introduction: The problem with methaneSome stories have come out recently about the melting of permafrost in the Arctic. Of course, one reason we’re worried about thawing permafrost is that the process...
View ArticleI'm Just Going to Leave This Right Here
The extreme right has the oddest way of deciding what’s in its own interests. What could that interest in altering a warning sign for road construction to a hate message to kill all of a specific...
View ArticleCOVID isn't over
Well, it happened again a year later. My husband (who is on dialysis and immune suppressants for another condition) and I took a trip to Atlanta to attend the annual convention for the National...
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A Picture Paints 1,000 Words
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve done a climate diary. We’ve heard plenty of news stories addressing warming-related flooding, heat waves, and drought, and the impacts and future implications of these...
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Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The Doomsday Clock stays at 90 seconds...
The Doomsday Clock setting for this year (based on events in 2023) was once again set at 90 seconds ‘til midnight, the same as last year.I recommend listening to the broadcast when you have an...
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